Friday, 11 July 2014

SHANNARA TV series greenlit

MTV has greenlit a ten-episode TV series based on Terry Brooks's Shannara novels. The first season will be an adaptation of the second novel in the series, The Elfstones of Shannara, presumably on the basis that trying to adapt The Sword of Shannara would result in near-instantaneous lawsuits from the Tolkien Estate and Peter Jackson.

Al Gough and Miles Millar, who produced Smallville, will work as showrunners on the new project, whilst Jon Favreau (the director of the first two Iron Man movies) will act as a producer. Jonathan Liebesman, the director of Battle Los Angeles, Wrath of the Titans and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, will direct the first two episodes.

The Elfstones is set a generation after Sword, and is very much a stand alone. Of course there are references to the first book, but so what? History rolls on, and the world of Shannara has both a past and a future.

The first season will be an adaptation of the second novel in the series, The Elfstones of Shannara, presumably on the basis that trying to adapt The Sword of Shannara would result in near-instantaneous lawsuits

That's a cynical view, but perhaps the main reason is adaptability.

A few years ago, Eldon Thompson was pitching a movie script for Elfstones, and he remarked how Elfstones was well-suited for adaption.